Rationale: In order for children to learn to read and
spell
words, they need to understand that letters stand for phonemes and
spellings
map out the phonemes in spoken words. To do this, children first
have to identify phonemes and then match letters to phonemes.
Short
vowels are probably the toughest phonemes to recognize. One short
vowel this lesson includes is the short e. This lesson
will
help children identify the phoneme /e/ (short e). They
will
learn to recognize /e/ in spoken words by learning important
representation
and letter symbol. They will also practice finding /e/ in words
and
by singing a song.

Materials: Poster with “Everybody saw Eddie and the
Eskimo
exit the elevator on the elephant;” primary paper and pencil; an
elephant
stamp; drawing paper and crayons; class set of “Eddie” the puppet sock
(I will ask children to bring an old, clean sock from home and we will
use these to make the sock puppets; I will also bring some of mine from
home for those children who forget); Red Gets Fed (Educational
Insights);
picture page with web, vest, ant, bell,
neck,
box,
nest,
well,
bus, fish (pictures are printed off the computer).

Procedures: 1) Introduce the lesson by explaining that
our written language is a secret code. The hard part is learning
what the letters represent—the mouth moves we make as we say
words.
Today we are going to work on how to find the mouth move /e/. At
first /e/ will be very difficult to spot, but as you get to be familiar
with it, you’ll be able to recognize /e/ in all kinds of words.

2) Ask students: Have you ever heard an old man say, “Ehhh…What’d
you
say?” Well, when he says /e/, that’s the mouth move we are
looking
for. Let’s pretend we are old men and hold our hands up to our
ears
and say /e/. /e/…what’d you say?

3) Let’s try a tongue twister [on poster]. “Everybody saw
Eddie
and the Eskimo exit the elevator on the elephant.” Everybody say
it three times together. Now say it again, and this time, stretch
the /e/ at the beginning of the words. “Eeeverybody saw Eeedie
and
the Eeeskimo eeexit the eeelevator on the eeelephant.” Try it
again,
and this time break it off the word: “/e/verybody saw /e/ddie and the
/e/skimo
/e/xit the /e/levator on the /e/lephant.” Eeexcellent work.

4) [Have students take out primary paper and pencil.] We use
the
letter e to spell /e/. Let’s write it. Start
halfway
between the fence and the sidewalk. Draw a straight line towards
the right window and curve up and touch the fence. Go towards the
left window and draw a curve down to the sidewalk. Go towards the
right window with a little curve. You should finish halfway
between
where you started the e and the sidewalk. [Model each
instruction
given.] I want to see everybody’s e. After I put an
elephant stamp on it, I want you to make eight more just like it
because
there are eight letters in elephant. When you see letter e
all by itself in a word, that’s the signal to say /e/.

5) Ask students the following questions and call on them to answer
and
tell how they knew: Do you hear /e/ in yes or no?
Desk
or table? East or west? Dry or
wet?
Best or worst? [Have students get out “Eddie” the
sock
puppet]. Say: Let’s see if our good friend Eddie can spot
the
mouth move /e/ in some words. If you hear /e/ in a word, have
Eddie
open his mouth and say /e/. If you don’t hear /e/ in a word, keep
Eddie’s mouth closed. [Give words one by one]. Everybody,
saw,
Eddie, and, the, Eskimo, exit, the, elevator, on, the, elephant.

6) Have students sing a song to the tune of Skip to my Lou.
Say:
Does anybody know the song to Skip to my Lou? Well, we are going
to make up a song to the tune of Skip to my Lou. It goes like
this.
“Who has a word that has an /e/? Has, has, has an /e/? Who
has a word that has an /e/? Skip to my Lou, my darling!”
Let’s
sing the chorus a couple of times to get the hang of it. [Sing
song
two times]. Now, who knows a word that has an /e/? Let’s
all
say the word and see if it has an /e/ in it. If it does, we will
sing the song using the word. For example, elephant is a word
that
has the /e/ sound, so we would sing, “Elephant is a word that has an
/e/,
and so on.” [We will sing the song through about five times].

7) Read Red Gets Fed and talk about the story. Read
it
again, and have students raise their hands when they hear words with
/e/.
List their words on the board. Then have each student draw a
picture
of their dog or a dog they would like to have and write a message about
it using invented spelling. Display their work.

8) For assessment, give each student a picture page and help
students
name each picture. Ask each student to circle the pictures whose
names have /e/.